ct with its associates of the Triple Alliance, has in the most
significant manner thus adjudged it.

Under the terms of the Triple Alliance, Italy had obligated itself to
support Germany and Austria in any purely _defensive_ war, and if
therefore the communications, which undoubtedly passed between Vienna
and Berlin on the one hand, and Rome on the other, justified the
conclusion that Germany and Austria had been assailed by Russia,
England, and France or either of them, then we must assume that Italy
would have respected its obligation, especially as it would thus
relieve Italy from any possible charge of treachery to two allies,
whose support and protection it had enjoyed from the time that the
Triple Alliance was first made.

When Italy decided that it was under no obligation to support its
allies, it effectually affirmed the fact that they had commenced a war
of aggression, and until the contrary is shown, we must therefore
assume that the archives of the Foreign Office at Rome would merely
confirm the conclusions hereinafter set forth as to the moral
responsibility for the war.

Similarly upon considerations that are familiar to all who have had
any experience in the judicial investigation of truth, it must be
assumed that if Austria had in its secret archives any documentary
evidence that would justify it in its pretension that it had been
unjustly assailed by one or more of the Powers with which it is now at
war, it would have published such documents to the world in its own
exculpation. The moral responsibility for this war is too great
for any nation to accept it unnecessarily. Least of all could
Austria--which on the face of the record commenced the controversy by
its ultimatum to Servia--leave anything undone to acquit itself at the
bar of public opinion of any responsibility for the great crime that
is now drenching Europe with blood. The time is past when any nation
can ignore the opinions of mankind or needlessly outrage its
conscience. Germany has recognized this in publishing its defense and
exhibiting a part of its documentary proof, and if its ally, Austria,
continues to withhold from the knowledge of the world the documents in
its possession, there can be but one conclusion as to its guilt.

Upon the record thus made up in the Supreme Court of Civilization,
that tribunal need no more hesitate to proceed to judgment than would
an ordinary court hesitate to enter a decree because one of the
litigan